Texas Dove Season Prospects Bright By Tom Behrens According to Shaun Oldenburger, TPWD's Dove Program Leader, hunters can expect to see an increase in dove over last year's numbers. Thanks to new rules approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) this year, hunters can possess up to 45 birds -- three times the daily bag limit. Previously, the possession limit was twice the daily bag. Daily bag limits still apply. Dove season kicks off Sunday, Sept. 1 across most of the state. In the North and Central zones the hunting season runs concurrent from Sept. 1-Oct. 23 and Dec. 20-Jan. 5. The South Zone dove season is set for Sept. 20-Oct. 27 and Dec. 20-Jan. 20, with the regular season in the SWWDA Sept. 20-Oct. 23 and Dec. 20-Jan. 20. White-wings and mourning doves...they're different: One of the favorite foods of white-wing is milo. They pick the seeds off. Mourning doves like to feed on what they find on the ground. Mourning doves like smaller seed such as milo, croton, sesame and native sunflower and grass seeds. White-wings are not timid about moving around. Sometimes they will fly for miles till they find something that is to their liking. Mourning doves tend to congregate, don't fly long distances. They congregate, roost in trees, then fly to their feeding areas. If they start having to go further distances to find water and food, they will just find different roosting areas. Dove huning tips: Texas Dove Hunts (http://txdovehunts.com/) and outfitter, Larry Gore (Eagle Lake and Katy Prairie OUTFITTERS (http://www.larrygore.com/) pass on some dove hunting tips for opening day. If you have the ability to hunt multiple fields, pre-scouting is really important. You want to be where you see some birds, not a week before, but a couple of days before. On opening day juvenile birds are not particularly weary. You can stand out there in bright orange T-shirts and a lot of times the birds will still fly over you. Wear camouflage or at least clothes colored to blend in with adjacent vegetation. Water...have lots of water for your dog. "In dogs overheating can happen so quick. I know more than one person who has lost a dog to overheating, always during dove season," says Gore. Make sure you have insect repellant...self explanatory. Have a good dove load shells. "Sometimes people tend to buy the cheaper shells. I like to see people buy a decent dove load." In a 12 gauge shell, Gore likes a load that has at least an ounce and a eighth of shot. "I like clean kills. I don't like wounding. You are only going to get so many shots in a day and you want to make every one count." Use decoys. Static dove decoys clipped on a fence or in the branches of a dead tree or shrub can draw the attention of passing doves. If you are hunting in the afternoon, it's usually to your advantage to hunt near a body of water. Doves head to the nearest watering hole for a drink before they roost. The best times to hunt doves is early in the morning when the birds are leaving their roost in search for food. This year, so far, the dove outlook is really good. Texas dove hunters number upwards of 250,000 and collectively bag between 5-6 million doves during the 70-day season. Photos: Milo is one of the favorite foods for doves. TPWD biologists predict lots of doves for the Texas hunter.